Smallest-insect
Guides
Dicopomorpha
fairyfly
Dicopomorpha is a genus of fairyflies in the family Mymaridae, established by Ogloblin in 1955. The genus includes ten described species and is notable for containing some of the smallest known adult insects. The wingless male of Dicopomorpha echmepterygis holds the record as the smallest known adult insect at only 130 μm in length. Like other mymarids, these wasps are egg parasitoids, though specific host associations remain largely unknown due to their minute size and cryptic biology.
Dicopomorpha echmepterygis
Dicopomorpha echmepterygis is the smallest known adult insect, with wingless males averaging 186 μm in body length (range 139–240 μm). This mymarid parasitoid wasp exhibits extreme sexual dimorphism: males are blind, apterous, and possess relatively long legs, while females are fully winged with functional compound eyes and black bodies. The species is an idiobiont parasitoid of eggs of the lepidopsocid barklouse Echmepteryx hageni. Males complete their entire life cycle within the host egg, mating with sisters and dying without ever emerging.
Mymaridae
Fairy Wasps, Fairyflies
Mymaridae, commonly known as fairy wasps or fairyflies, is a family of microscopic chalcidoid wasps containing approximately 100 genera and 1,400 described species distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical regions. Members are among the smallest known insects, with body lengths ranging from 0.2 to 1.5 mm; the smallest species, Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, measures only 0.139 mm and is the smallest known insect. All known species are solitary, idiobiont endoparasitoids of insect eggs, with hosts primarily in Hemiptera (especially leafhoppers, planthoppers, and true bugs), Coleoptera, and Psocodea. The family is economically significant as biological control agents for agricultural pests, particularly for leafhoppers that vector plant diseases.